Heide Museum of Modern Art has today announced the first survey exhibition in Australia of renowned American photographer Catherine Opie. Presented at Heide from 1 April to 9 July 2023, the exhibition Catherine Opie: Binding Ties brings together more than fifty key works traversing the artist’s historic and recent practice.

Since the 1990s, Catherine Opie’s photographs have challenged and illuminated our understanding of notions of personal and political affiliation, the central theme of the exhibition. In 1994 Heide exhibited eighteen of Opie’s portraits in the exhibition Persona Cognita, curated by Juliana Engberg, which represented Opie’s first showing in Australia. Now almost three decades later, Heide will host the first survey of the artist’s work in this part of the world.

Curated by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and delivered in collaboration with the Melbourne Art Foundation, Melbourne Design Fair is Australia’s largest presentation of contemporary and twentieth century collectible design by leading Australian and international practitioners. The four-day event will take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) from 18 – 21 May.

The centrepiece of Melbourne Design Week, Melbourne Design Fair features the work of more than 150 designers across 60+ presentations staged by prominent commercial galleries, design agencies, organisations and studios. The event offers visitors the chance to view and purchase one-of-a-kind, limited edition and small batch design production, including furniture, lighting and contemporary jewellery.

The Gold Coast contemporary cultural precinct HOTA, Home of the Arts has unveiled the world premiere exhibition, Pop Masters: Art from the Mugrabi Collection, New York opening 18 February 2023. Drawn entirely from the famed private collection of one of the world’s most prominent art collectors, Jose Mugrabi, the first international blockbuster exhibition to be presented at the new HOTA Gallery celebrates the origins and on-going legacy of Pop Art.

A world first exhibition, Pop Masters: Art from the Mugrabi Collection, New York presents more than 50 works never-before-seen in Australia by 15 legendary and renowned artists including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Tom Wesselmann, Katherine Bernhardt, Kwesi Botchway, George Condo, Damien Hirst, KAWS, Jeff Koons, Joel Mesler, Richard Prince, Tom Sachs, Julian Schnabel and Mickalene Thomas. Pop Masters: Art from the Mugrabi Collection, New York highlights the intersections in the lives, ideas and practices of this significant group of artists, many of whom either knew each other, collaborated together or have been influenced by the work of another. The exhibition explores six decades of Pop Art including numerous works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring in conversation with contemporary artists at the forefront of the genre today.

Carriageworks today announced 11 artists who will be the 2023 artists in residence at the Carriageworks Clothing Store building. Established in 2017, the program provides artists working at the forefront of contemporary practice with a subsidised studio space in the heart of North Eveleigh.

The 2023 Carriageworks Resident Artists are: Eddie Abd, Clare Britton, Elizabeth Day, Helen Grace, Karleen Green, Shivanjani Lal, Jazz Money, Jason Phu, Daley Rangi, Salote Tawale and Anne-Marie Te Whiu.

Built in 1913, the Clothing Store is part of the historic Eveleigh Railway Workshops that includes Carriageworks and South Eveleigh. The artist residency program at the Clothing Store has supported more than 30 artists across five years to date. Previous artists in residence have included: Tony Albert, Frances Barrett, Sarah Contos, Dean Cross, Mikala Dwyer, Cherine Fahd, Brian Fuata, Dennis Golding, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Thea Anamara Perkins, Kate Mitchell, JD Reforma and Nell.

These six large paintings have as their starting point the exact scale of the windows in the Sirius Building in Sydney, a subject Callum Morton has been interested in for some time as part of, more broadly, a catalogue of the lost, ignored and hidden.

Anna Schwartz, Founder of Anna Schwartz Gallery, said: “When encountering the latest work of an artist there is often a retrospective shift in the understanding of the entire practice.  The new work, although unpredictable, often has an inevitability once seen.  These new paintings by Callum Morton inspire the realisation of the importance of painting throughout his history, the cover-ups, the screens and billboards. Callum Morton the painter!”